13 January 2008

I've done a bit more work on the hair. It's still not quite as I would like it to be, but I think I might be making it worse by overworking it now. So, I'm going to leave it now and work on the portrait on my niece.

12 January 2008

Not a great start to the New Year for me. First, I lost my beloved iPod. Luckily, I haven't actually lost any music, but it is still a big blow. I'll just have to get a fancy new one to replace it! Then I got ill...not the stomach thing that everyone else in Britain seems to be coming down with, but something called labyrinthitis, a problem in the ear that makes it hard to keep your balance. So, I walk around as if I was drunk, only without actually having had anything to drink: the worst of all possible worlds! Fortunately, it is getting better and, according to the doctor, shouldn't last more than a week. In fact, I was well enough today to go to a new life class that has just started near where I live. I'm so excited! I've never done a life class before. Actually, it isn't really a class; it's just a couple of hours with a model, but that's OK with me. Unfortunately, it's only once a month, but perhaps if it proves popular it will become more frequent. Anyway, here are my efforts from today, all in charcoal on A3 paper and all five minute poses except for the last one that was half an hour.

08 January 2008

Well, I didn't manage to get this finished in time, but not to worry because my sister-in-law has a birthday next month, so that's my new deadline! Here is another update. I think this is getting close to being finished, but I'm not happy with parts of the hair yet. Now that I look at it with fresh eyes, I can see that I've not been paying enough attention to variation in tone; too much of it has been hatched in repetitively and mindlessly. Still, it shouldn't be too difficult to improve, and I'm quite pleased with the likeness and the feeling of the piece.